This invention relates generally to a fire protection apparatus and, more particularly, to a multi-zone protection system having a central control panel for both controlling and monitoring system operation and individual detectors and manual pull stations for, respectively, detecting a fire condition and initiating extinguishing agent release in each zone.
Present fire alarm and extinguishing systems provide in various ways for the release of extinguishing agent. For example, in certain applications, the extinguishing agent may be automatically released immediately in response to the detection of a fire condition. In other applications, the release of extinguishing agent may be time delayed for a certain period after a pre-extinguish or pre-release alarm signal has been established. Finally, agent release may be initiated by manual action subsequent to an initial alarm signal produced in response to the detection of a fire condition.
The present invention relates primarily to the latter two applications wherein a manual pull station customarily is provided for each zone of a multi-zone protection system. Prior systems of this type have not offered the versatility required for maximum fire protection. For example, it is often desirable that a reserve quantity of extinguishing agent be released some time after the initial release of a main quantity of agent. Heretofore, the release of a reserve quantity of an extinguishing agent has been accomplished only by action taken at a central control panel while in many instances it would be desirable that the release of the reserve agent be initiated by action at a pull station in the immediate vicinity of the zone in which the fire condition exists. This would facilitate appropriate action by personnel actually observing the fire condition. Another drawback of existing systems is that personnel are not always able to quickly identify the particular manual pull station associated with a zone in which a fire has been detected.
The object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an improved, multi-zone fire protection system employing an individual detector and an extinguishing agent releasing pull station for each protected zone.